1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a body of a vehicle wherein the body has a substantially same sectional shape along the overall length thereof and has a comparatively great length such as a railway rolling stock and a method of assembling the body.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of methods of manufacturing a body of a vehicle having a comparatively great length such as a railway rolling stock which have conventionally been employed popularly is disclosed in Hiroshi Matsuzawa, "Introduction to Passenger-Carrying Car Engineering", Kabushiki Kaisha Railway System Research, Jul. 7, 1986, pp. 152-158 or Japanese Patent Publication Application No. 60-13860. According to the method, various components of a body of a vehicle including an underframe, a pair of left and right side framings, a pair of front and rear end framings and a roof framing are produced for one vehicle for each vehicle type, and then, the components are coupled as different sides of a hexahedron into a unitary member to construct a body of a vehicle.
With the prior art manufacturing method, however, since the different elements of the hexahedron structure are produced for each vehicle, when a body which is, for example, partially different in design is to be manufactured, related components must be produced as separated members. Accordingly, the enhancement of the productivity in mass production cannot be achieved readily.
Further, while various jigs are used for positioning or keeping of postures of various elements when they are to be coupled to each other, since the components except the front and rear end framings extend over the overall length of the body and besides have planar profiles, they are liable to bend. Accordingly, the jigs for keeping the postures must have large sizes corresponding to the length of the body. Further, naturally a spacious operation location is required for both of a producing operation for each component and a coupling operation for the entire body. Further, when a body which is different in structure even at part thereof is to be manufactured, related jigs must be reset, and accordingly, the manufacturing operation must be interrupted for the re-setting.